The Stevens Family

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Hazyn turned 1!!! I borrowed a cake pan from my friend Sandra and made this beautiful butterfly cake for Hazyn.

We had hotdogs, chips, and cake up at the Lemon's house for her birthday. It wasn't big, but it was perfect. We did miss my family though.

We ended up in St. George this month and we got a baby and baby stroller for Hazyn from my mom and sister.

We also got her a slide because she was loving the one at my sister's house! I couldn't believe how she would just climb up the slide part with no fail! She was so happy!

Monty is getting to where he wants to help with Hazyn all the time. He loves to feed her a bottle and feel like he is important and helping.

I love that he is wanting to help too!

We celebrated Easter this month during spring break. It was so nice not to have to wake up early for a week! The Easter bunny came late Saturday night while we went for a little walk around town!

He left a little Easter Bunny poop trail that led downstairs! He even pooped out the names for each kid!

The boys were sooo excited! Monty kept saying, "It's poop!" I told him to eat it and he said, "That's gross!" lol! Once he watched Dawson eat some Easter bunny poop, he tried some too and thought it didn't taste too bad!

You can see how happy the boys were to get sleeping bags of their own so they could take it on the Father and Son's campout coming up.

Then she finally made her way over to her chair and didn't want to get out unless she needed more 'poop.'

During April we had our furnace go out and water heater. One night I went downstairs and smelled gas really bad. We shut off the furnace and left the house to air out until we felt it was safe to come back. In the morning we called Questar. They came out and checked everything. He turned on the furnace and checked the exhaust only to find that there was 4,000 ppm of carbon monoxide coming out. He tagged the furnace and shut it all off and said to not turn it back on. We were lucky to be alive. We got the HVAC guy out the next day and he told us that 700 ppm of carbon monoxide was dangerous. We WERE lucky to be alive!!

Two weeks later I smelled gas again. I called Questar again and he told us that our water heater was putting out 48,000 ppm of natural gas. So he had to tag it and turn it off. We were left with no hot water and no heat. It was killing us. We got a water heater the next day, but without heat it made it hard to stay at home because it still was quite cold out.

We had several heaven sent tender mercies of people helping us out so we could afford a new water heater. We eventually got a furnace, but we are trying to get time to put it in.

With all these things, the next thing we knew it was baseball time and May!

This month we celebrated our 10th
anniversary! It was also the month that my nephew got married! J.D. and I
planned out some fun things to do with the kids.

We took the kids to eat at Rumbi’s in Salt Lake
because that is where J.D. and I ate for our first date!

We even sat where J.D. and I sat for our first date.
We sat with a random stranger at this table because there weren’t anymore
places to sit once we got our food.

The food was better than I remember! We then ventured
to the Bountiful Temple.

We showed the kids where J.D. proposed to me.

The kids loved the water fountain there and thought
the view was majestic.

We stayed in a hotel in Clinton for the wedding. I love having older nieces and nephews who can watch the kids while we were able to go into the temple. It was a beautiful Temple (The ogden temple).

My mom put Chase's hair into a pony and Dawson got the biggest kick out of it.

We
got to light sparklers that night as James and Nicole walked through and off to
their honeymoon.

We also went down to the reception in Kanab. For some reason my kids have this obsession with playing with my hair. It drives me crazy, but it drives me more crazy when they scream and cry... so I give in.

I helped serve at the reception which is exactly where I wanted to be. I didn't want to be socializing and sitting around. It was nice to have something to do. Afterwards, I found my little Monty dying to have some cake...

He just couldn't resist!

We went out to the hills the next day to have sandwiches and play with the family. We got there and guess what!? Our tire went flat. We got it filled back up with a small air compressor and tire kit that my brother in laws brought... and then tried to enjoy a couple of hours together.

I love my family so much!

They just know how to have a good time!

The dirt and sand is the best part of it all!

I stayed in the shade most of the time because I didn't want Hazyn getting burnt. Yep, it was March and we were worried about sunburns down in sunny Kanab.

Me and my bug

J.D. got a good nap in before the drive home...

Choc and Brie brought these chairs... they were comfy...

We did make it home that night because my dad had a permanent tire kit that we used back at their home. We were so happy to get home and we were able to get two new tires on the van the next day. We then cleaned the van and posted it for sale.... We just need something more handy man ish like a truck. Especially if we want to do the business full time.

In the mean time we had a lot of fun at home...

We did actually go out to eat for our anniversary on the actual day. We went to Paradise Inn in Fillmore and they have beer battered fries!!! who knew!!? I had been craving these fries since we left Montana!

Hazyn's hair continued to grow, so we got another hair cut...

Monty found my glass tea cups and HAD to have pepsi in it!

Monty and Hazyn sometimes get along... Monty doesn't realize how strong he is and will just hug her or try to hold her.. It usually ends with Hazyn screaming. But sometimes I catch moments like these when Monty is sharing with Hazyn and they are both calm.

We end up at the Lemon's house a lot and had a planking contest... Katie won. lol!

February was so much fun. J.D. finished the booth for Wade Lemon Hunting and then they paid for us to stay in Vegas and come to the Safari Club International show. This is a HUGE hunting show and seriously would take days just to see everything there. We got to spend 1 day and then relax and hang out in Vegas for two nights for free! Here are some of the things we saw.

Taxidermy has seriously taken on a whole new level of wow if you ask me. I had no idea how amazingly talented these people are.

I tried on a $13,000 fur coat!

We did take Hazyn, but left the boys in St. George with my sister. It was pretty cool to see how tall I am to a baby giraffe.

We had to get a few pics with J.D. even though he hates pictures.

The water buffalo was amazing! I can't imagine how many hours and months it would take to create this.

Here is J.D. in front of the booth he built! Everything you see besides the animals is all J.D. and his skills. It was by far one of the best booths there.

We went to eat at Denny's one morning and Hazyn was loving the spoon with or without food!

We came home after those fun days in vegas, and when we got home, Monty immediately crashed for hours... lol!

J.D. and I spent a Valentines night at the Lemon's. We had steaks and salad, and Katie went all out on the decorations and dessert. It was so much fun! I had been telling J.D. I had a surprise for him and then we pulled up to the Lemon's house that night.. We were laughing pretty hard because I had made it sound like the surprise was going to be out in the town.. technically it was.

Monty is my kid that gets hurt, and usually gets over it pretty fast. He just gets hurt ALL the time and has the worst marks from it. This is from falling off the chair.

He has broken his foot before, but for the most part I need to be grateful he hasn't broken more after all he has endured.

Our sweet Hazie Bug has the best bed head! It is hilarious to see how wild her hair gets every morning and then she just grins so big! She is the cutest!

She finds herself stuck in places and thinks she is so smart for getting into it, but then screams when she can't get out.

Here is another Monty crash. lol! I find him all over the house sleeping in random places. He reminds me of my brother Choc who can sleep in any position at any time. Not even kidding. This is how Monty is!

We tried braided pig tails for the first time! I can't believe she is only 7 months and I can do so much with her hair. At this point she has already had a hair cut too!

Later this month we went up to stay with the Shakespears and go to the Salt Lake Hunting show. This one was a heck of a lot cheaper to get into, but it was SO crowded. The girls didn't go... and Monty. J.D. said he saw the booth he made again, but they just fought through people and didn't enjoy it as much.

While the men went out, we went to the park.

Hazyn and Brooke are about a month apart, but Brooke is taller! lol!

And then we just came home and took random pictures throughout our days.

Monty put yogurt on his upper lip and said, "Mom! I have a mustache!" I didn't even know he knew what a mustache was. lol!

Hazyn figured out how to climb into her carseat without help...

Dawson took random pics with my phone... he is such a goofball! He is doing so good in school. We had parent teacher conference this month and he is the top of his class, starting to be on a 5th grade reading level, and always strives for 100% on everything.

This little girl is such a stinker! If I don't buckler her in she insists on standing. I'm lucky she hasn't fallen yet! She just loves to be at the highest height if she can.

The library in our community held a Dr. Suess Day! The kids loved it!

Dawson finished up his basketball season and we get a little break before baseball. I'm so worn out from going to games with little kids. We are still working on the basement, but we did get canned lights up finally. J.D. is getting busier and busier with his handy man. Hopefully he will be able to do this full time in the next year or two. He is getting ready to hire people and build the business up enough. We could just do handyman, but we are waiting for a few more things to work out before we don't rely on a steady paycheck. I'm finally feeling better after the ER visit in November. I'm working out a lot and can't wait to stop nursing. We are so grateful to live in Holden and be able to have a home and live a life we want.

About Me

We are the Stevens family and live in Holden, UT. I am a stay at home mom and love every minute of it! J.D. (my hunners) works at a place where they store propane and other gases deep down into the Earth's salt caverns. We have four beautiful children; two handsome little boys, a beautiful little girl her on earth, and one beautiful little girl in Heaven. While we miss our sweet Andee M’lee, who was stillborn at 36 weeks, we know she is too pure and sacred to be here on Earth. Dawson, 8 years old, is a proud big brother who is very protective of his siblings. He is very in tune with them, and always prays for everyone to always be okay. He loves school and friends. Monty is ALL BOY and knows what he wants. He is hilarious and it's really hard to get mad at him without laughing. Hazyn is the sweetest little girl. She is definitely spoiled with love from her brothers. Our family continues to grow with more laughter and happiness every day.